(a) A Chain of Reaction. The significant portion of our social milieu begins with the expansion of the markets founded by the rising commercial capital of Western Europe at the turn of the fifteenth century. Succeeding years witnessed the “Discovery ” of new lands by the Europeans, the Papal award of the whole of Africa to the Portuguese, increase European slave raids on Africa, denuded Africa of Africans and led to the establishment in the Americas of the greatest mass chattel slavery that the world had over known. Africa has been successfully robbed of Africans. It was this chattel slavery that contributed substantially to the initiations of the European industrial revolution which in turn resulted in the unleashing of the chain of the reaction which culminated in the rape of Africa at the close of the last century.

(b) Land Robbery and political Subjugation. Early Europeans settlement of Africa especially of it’s southern tip, as a direct result of the rise of European commercial capital. Wave upon wave European settlers came to Africa and their penetration of the interior involved the loss of sovereignty by the indigenous peoples and the alienation of more and more portions of their land. With the rise of the industrial capital of Europe and its increased search for raw materials and more markets, the partition of Africa went apace and the doctrine of “effective occupation” was enunciated, a theory calculated to “sugar coat” the bitter pills of robbery and political subjugation. More and more settles came into the country until today there are 5, 000,000 Europeans who up to the dawn of African liberation had constituted themselves a ruling class over the 250, 000,000 indigenous peoples. Africans had been successfully robbed of Africa.

(c) Established by the Sword. The advent of European imperialism and colonialism to Africa brought in its wake the phenomenon of white domination, whether visible or invisible, which is characterised by the political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation of the indigenous African masses. Throughout this historical epoch, the age of white domination, whenever the spokesmen or representatives of white domination have sprouted a conscience, they have referred to the phenomenon as the “spread of Western civilisation” or “the extension of Christian trusteeship”. The undisguised truth is that White domination has ground down the status of man and stunted THE NORMAL GROUTH OF THE HUMAN PERSONALITY ON SCALE UNPRECEDENTED IN HUMAN HISTORY. White domination was established by the sword and is maintained by the sword.

(d) Expulsion of Imperialist. Exploiters Significant event of the twentieth century especially of the latter part of it, have constituted a massive challenge to Herrenvolkism, a particular manifestation of imperialism and colonialism. Already European exploiters and oppressors have been dramatically expelled from such countries as Indonesia, India, china, Burma, Vietnam, etc. These are today being systematically routed and forcibly caused to retreat in confusion. The post-war world has witnessed the expulsion of the European imperialist exploiters and oppressors from large tracts of Africa and the emergence of no less than nine sovereign and independent African states. We are indeed witnessing a twilight of the twin gods of white domination and imperialist exploitation- a Gotterdammerung.

(e) Decolonisation and Independence. Elsewhere in Africa the progressive force of African nationalism continue to be locked in mortal combat with reactionary forces of Herrenvolkism. By the end of next the people of Togoland, Somaliland, the Cameroons and Nigeria will have achieved freedom. The French policy of “association’ is also being rejected in favour of decolonisation and independence.

(f) The Liquidation of the Forces of Oppression. To the chagrin of the imperialists the government of Free Algeria is a reality. Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda are on the verge of obtaining their freedom from British imperialism. Contrary to their traditional policy the Belgian imperialists have been forced to accede, at least in principle, to the African people’s demand for the recognition of their independence in the Congo. The policy of partnership pursued in the Central African Federation has been exposed for what it is: the greatest political fraud of our times. Even in those massive concentration camps, Angola and Mozambique, the African people have begun to reject the status quoin favour of their own freedom. The liquidation of the forces of oppression is a process not even nuclear power can halt.

(g) Right to Shape Own Destiny. The days of European dominations of Africa are numbered. Even in South Africa the writing is glaringly on the wall for hose of our European rulers who can see and decipher it. For exactly three-hundred and seven years today, the African people have criminally oppressed, ruthlessly exploited and inhumanly degraded. They have in the past, as they do now, declared themselves for freedom. They reject white domination in any shape or form. They are unflinchingly determined to wrest the control of the country from alien hands. They are determined to exercise the most fundamental of human rights, the inalienable right of indigenous people to determine and shape their own destiny. To the African people there can be no room in any way or in any part of Africa for any non-indigenous peoples who deny to the indigenous populations their fundamental right to control their own materials and spiritual interests effectively, South Africa, witch is an integral part of the continent, is the inalienable heritage of the African people and its effective control is their undoubted and unquestionable birthright.

(h) No Longer with the Ranks of the Liberation Movement. Following the ‘capture’ of a portion of the black leadership of South Africa by a section of the leadership of the white ruling class, the masses of our people are in extreme danger of being deceived into losing site of the objectives of our struggle. This captured black leadership claims to be fighting to perpetuate the tutelage of the African people. It is tooth and nail against the Africans gaining the effective control of their own country. It is fighting for the maintenance of the status quo .It is fighting for the “constitutional guarantees” or “national rights” for our alien nationals. It has completely abandoned the objectives of freedom. It has joined the ranks of the reactionary forces. It is no longer within the ranks of the liberation movement.

(i) White Domination Without Frills and Trappings These “leaders” consider South Africa and its wealth to belong to all who live in it, the alien dispossessors and the indigenous dispossessed, the alien robbers and their indigenous victims. They regard as equal the foreign master and his indigenous slave, the white exploiter and the African exploited, the foreign oppressor and the indigenous oppressed. They regard as brothers the subject Africans and their European overloads. They are too incredibly naïve and too fantastically unrealistic to see that the interests of the subject people who are criminally oppressed, ruthlessly exploited and inhumanly degraded, are in sharp conflict and in pointed contradiction with those of the white ruling class. Citizen Toussant once remarked that:“whenever anybody, he be white or mulatto, want a dirty job done, he always gets a black man to do it”. The so-called leaders after doing a dirty job namely; seeing to it that the African is deprived for all time of this inherent right to control his country effectively; of seeing to it that whatever new social order is established in this country; the essentials of white domination are retained, even though its frills and trappings may be ripped off. This attitude has been labelled MULTI-RACIALISM by their white masters. They have been boldly suggested that being multi-racialist is a virtue!

(j) One Race. The Human Race The African people are very much proud of their race – the human race. They recognise no inescapable fundamental differences among members of even the three main branches of that race: the Caucasoids, Mongoloids and Afrinoids. They do not subscribe to the theory that there are inherent mental, emotional and psychological differences among the members of the different branches of the human species. They hold the granting of “right” on the basis of ethnological origin to be the entrenching of sectional arrogance and the continued maintenance of contempt for human worth and disregard for human dignity. They regard the differences that exist among various groups of man to be among various groups or subgroups of man to be mainly acquired in and through the individual factors in the acquisition of group characters. They do not, and will not tolerate or foster sectional arrogance, and continued contempt for the worth of the human personality and the disregard for human dignity.

The African people are fully aware that suggestions of apartheid, whether total or partial, of segregation social or political, of Christian trusteeship, while leadership with justice, of partnership etc., are all intended merely as a look for their continued oppression, exploitation and degradation.They deny the foreigners any right to balkanise or Pakistanise their country. To any such schemes, programmes of policies, the African cannot be a party. The African people are neither racists nor racialists, and they unreservedly condemn all forms of racialism. They do not nurse any crude hatred for the European peoples, but they do cherish a deep – seated detestation for the Herrenvolk system.

(k) Monolithic Giant – Union of African States. The African people of South Africa recognise themselves as part of one African Nation, stretching from Cape to Cairo, Madagascar to Morocco, and pledge themselves to strive and work ceaselessly to find organisational expression for this nation in a merger of free independent African States; a United States of Africa. Which will serve as an effective bulwark against the forces of imperialism, colonialism, herrenvolkism and tribalism, and as a sure and lasting foundation for an Africanist Socialist democracy. The African people regard the development of such a nation as essential for the preservation of their sovereignty, of their vital material and spiritual interests and for the creation of conditions under which they will be enabled to make their lasting contribution to human advancement in a free Africa. The African people will not tolerate the existence of the other national groups within the confines of one nation. For the healthy growth and development of the African nation it is imperative that all individuals must owe their first, and only, loyalty to the African nation, and not to their ethnic or national groups.

The African people regard the influence of material conditions in the development of nation as being of greater significance than mere ethnic origin. Within the social environment of the African there will be room for all individuals who will identify themselves materially, intellectually and spiritually with the African nation. In South Africa the social force which upholds the material, intellectual and spiritual interest of the oppressed people is African nationalism, and the social force which upholds the material, intellectual and spiritual interests of the oppressor is Herrevolkism. These antithetical forces shall find their final reconciliation everlasting in the synthesis of Africanism, in which contradictory aspects shall have vanished and only the unifying factors which portray no instability shall remain. Africanism is a social force that upholds the material, intellectual and spiritual interests of the individual. In this way Africanism is the only logical and practical solution for the social question in Africa.

(l) Social Relations. The basic question confronting the African people is identical with that has faced mankind from the beginning of time itself: the problem of man’ s relations to his fellowman. It is the question of how man shall live with fellowman in fellowship; in harmony and in peace. Man, moves and has his being in a social environment. In absence of social life the economic question would fall away. Man’s relation to his fellowman is determined by his primary needs. The social question, whose structural foundations are to be found in economic determinism, arises within the framework of social relations. Man is therefore, a social being and not an economic ANIMAL. To live in harmony with his fellowmen, man must recognise THE primacy of the material and spiritual interest of his fellowmen, uphold his won interests at the expense of those of his fellowmen. It is only within such a set-up that the human personality can be fostered.

(m) Our Historic Tasks. The historic tasks of the African liberation movement are clearly the product of Africa’s history, of the forces and factors which have made it what it is. To attain complete freedom in Africa, the historic tasks of the movement are:

To forge, foster and consolidate the bonds of African nationhood on Pan African basis. o To implement effectively the fundamental principal that the domination or sovereignty over and the dominion or ownership in the whole territory of the continent rest exclusively and inalienably in the indigenous people.o To create and maintain a United States of Africa that will serve and provide and provide a concrete institutional form for the African nation.

To establish an Africanistic Socialist democratic social order, recognising the primacy of the vital material, intellectual and spiritual interests of the individual. A liberation movement must find concrete expression in organisational form and substance in order that it may achieve its historic tasks.

The highest organisational form and structure in which the African liberation movement has found concrete expression in South Africa is the Pan Africanist Congress and the various facets of its historic role are:

To create an organisational machinery for the galvanising of the oppressed exploited and degraded African masses into an irresistible social force bent upon destruction of all factors and forces that have reduced that stature of man and retarded his growth and also bent upon the creation of conditions favourable for the restoration of man’s worth and dignity and for the development of the African personality.

To establish for the liberation movement a training ground for production of a determined, dedicated and disciplined collective leadership that will serve, not only as a symbol of a national unity on a Pan African basis, but also as the repository, guardian and custodian of the ideas, principles and methods of the movement, as well as of the policies and programmes of the organisation.

To provide an administrative machinery for the direction, guidance and control of the national liberation movement in its grand march towards the inevitable goal of the complete freedom.

(n) Africanism – A Third Social Force. Africanism is Pan Africanist in scope, purpose and direction. It is a social force that constitutes the third social force in the world. It serves the material, intellectual and spiritual interests of Africa and does not in any way serve the spiritual interests of either the Eastern or Western powers. It is continental in scope, covering the entire continent, from Cape to Cairo and from Madagascar to Morocco. It is a social force functioning through the media of African social conditions, and operating to liberate Africa and to create a social order original in conception, Africanistic in orientation, socialistic in content, democratic in form and creative in purpose. Pan Africanism became a concrete reality when African nationalists met at Accra. The All- Africa Peoples’ Conference, held in Accra in December 1958, laid a promising organisational foundation for African nationalism on a Pan African basis.

(o) Final Triumph. In its dialectical march towards the final synthesis of Africanism, African nationalism is destined to create the conditions favourable for the development of the African personality. The final triumph of the liberation movement under the direction of the P. A. C. is assured. The movement must triumph because in the march to freedom the African people have history on their side. The militant progress forces of African nationalism are bound to crush the reactionary forces of white domination. The movement must triumph because the P.A.C alone has a message for the oppressed, that their salvation lies in the manifest determination to unite as a nation and to struggle for the noble ends of freedom and self determination. The movement must triumph because, having been purified in the crucible of oppression, the African people can demonstrate to the world genuine in action, a democracy founded upon the ruins of the material and spiritual conflicts and contradictions of the existing social order, a democracy in which man shall at long last find this true self, and a democracy in which the human personality shall blossom to the full.

ADOPTED BY THE INAUGURAL CONFERENCE OF THE P.A.C – 5TH APRIL, 1959

This information is gathered from the IEC and the above party website or publicly available documents.

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About MyPortElizabeth

About Alan Straton: Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."